Sales Meeting Ideas: 6 Fun Activities That Your Sales Team Will Love

When companies choose not to address employee engagement and retention, employees are four times more likely to leave. So, how do you boost employee engagement?

A great way to keep your employees happy and engaged is through sales team building games. While such activities may be perceived as a waste of work time or not applicable to sales, they can actually be an effective way to improve your sales team’s productivity and retain your best talent.

Here are 6 examples of sales team building activities to improve both employee engagement and the quality of the sales reps’ work:

Company Jeopardy

Team members can enjoy a friendly competition while learning about their company. The goal of the game is to give correct answers to clues about the company and its products.

To prepare the game, you first have to decide what knowledge you want your reps to learn and retain. Think of five different categories, such as “products we sell” or “company values.” Each category will hold five questions relating to the assigned topic. For example, the “products we sell” category may have the question: “What is the price of this product?”

Once you have written down the five categories and five questions in each, you can make a Jeopardy board in PowerPoint. Assign each question with point values from 100 to 500. Questions worth 100 points are the easiest, and the hardest questions are worth 500 points.

Once you have created your board, split the sales team into a few smaller teams. Each group takes turns selecting a category and a point value. The team has a limited time to converse and answer the question. If they get it right, they get those points. If they get it wrong, the other teams have the opportunity to steal the question and answer correctly. Keep calculations of what each team scores, and once all of the questions have been picked, the group with the most points wins.

Benefits:

Product Knowledge

For the team: Company Jeopardy is a great activity for the onboarding process. It allows new employees to achieve an understanding of both the company and its products in an engaging format. It also fosters collaboration among sales reps because everyone can contribute with their own knowledge.

For the job: Without an understanding of the company and its products, sales reps might seem unprepared and untrustworthy to potential clients. Prospects want to feel that reps are knowledgeable on what they are selling, otherwise, they’ll never turn into paying customers. This product knowledge can be achieved through games like Company Jeopardy.

Confidence

When reps know about their company’s products, they feel more confident in sales meetings. A study published in the Research in Organizational Behavior Journal found that sales reps who are confident in their ability to complete tasks of selling are more persistent and more likely to overcome barriers.

Local Charity Work

Raising money for a charity can encourage employees to make a difference for a respectable cause. This activity makes team members work together or engage in a friendly competition to raise funds.

Have employees discuss their values and interests together to find commonalities. Then, research charities that align with those shared values, so everyone feels like their efforts are going toward a cause they care about. Use Idealist to find opportunities in your area that also match your team’s values.

Specific examples include:

Organizing a competition among team members to see who can raise the most money. This activity can give managers insight into which sales reps are most successful at pitching their efforts to potential contributors.

Participating in a corporate volunteer opportunity. For example, Rebuilding Together has team project opportunities to rebuild homes and communities.

Placing bins in the office where team members can donate clothes to homeless shelters.

Benefits:

Collaboration

For the team: Collaboration among sales reps is essential for a functional sales team. Team members need to update other reps on their progress, give each other advice, and find solutions to problems. Fundraising is a great way to practice these skills.

For the job: When team members discuss and agree on fundraising decisions, they are practicing for successful collaboration with clients. As a sales rep, it’s important to connect with your clients and establish trust. This can be facilitated by finding shared interests and using them to the rep’s advantage.

Empathy

For the team: Supporting one’s community can provide salespeople with an understanding of the issues others may have to endure. Support from coworkers can also make a big difference. Whether it’s or offering a new perspective on an ongoing issue or listening to another reps’ frustrations, developing a sense of empathy is always helpful.

For the job: Learning from struggling community members can help employees understand the needs of their own community and therefore become more empathetic. Sales reps should be able to put themselves in their clients’ shoes and find ways to support them to increase sales. Helping those in need can be a great way to foster interpersonal skills.

Hike

Take a break from sitting in the office and stretch those legs with a hike nearby. Have the sales team bring their workout clothes to work and take a half-day to get some exercise out in nature. Although exercise is great for overall health and fitness, it can also positively impact the workplace.

Benefits:

For the team: Exercise has numerous benefits for well-being and success, including increasing energy levels and reducing stress. When your team is happy and healthy, the work environment will stay positive in stressful situations. Stimulating activities like hiking can help you achieve that environment, leading to better retention rates and sales success.

For the job: Committing to your clients is essential. You have to check up on them consistently and stay connected until the deal is closed. The boost in energy can help sales reps stay focused on keeping their customers happy. Just like finishing a hike, closing a deal requires hard work and determination.

Award Ceremony

Hold a ceremony every month where each member of a team gives an award to a colleague for their hard work.

Have each person print a customized certificate for one of their team members with an appreciation message for them. Awards can be used for a big sale someone closed or a great customer review. Plan a short ceremony so members can come together and share each other’s achievements.

Benefits:

Active listening

For the team: By holding each team member accountable for observing the work of their colleagues, they can learn to listen for important information and recognize their colleagues’ efforts.

For the job: In client meetings, sales reps should be attentive to their clients’ reservations and thoughts. Doing so makes clients feel heard and respected, and can help reps win more sales.

Relationship management

For the team: Holding an award ceremony allows employees to learn about others and evaluate their actions and behaviors. This recognition and care for coworkers can help create an enjoyable and friendly team environment.

For the job: Jason Kulpa from Forbes reports that customer relationship management can increase customer satisfaction, efficiency, and profits. Through relationship management, reps can learn about their customers - what they do, what they need, and what they expect. Relationship management between employees can provide them with skills for maintaining relationships with clients.

Escape Room

An escape room is a fun activity rooted in teamwork and good communication skills. Your team will have a limited amount of time to solve clues and puzzles to escape the room.

You can find escape rooms in your area through a simple Google search. Look for those that hold company events, their games will be more oriented towards team building,

Benefits

Productivity

For the team: Both sales and escape rooms are all about finding the right tools and practices in the least amount of time. A sales team must successfully plan ahead and manage a practical sales pipeline. Similarly, a timed escape room forces the players to find answers and figure out the right solutions while also practicing time management. Additionally, managers can spot sales team members’ otherwise hidden skills through an escape room, such as leadership skills.

For the job: Sales reps need to use their time wisely, whether it’s sorting through leads, conducting background research on a potential customer’s company, or closing a deal despite sales objections. In escape rooms, it’s all about using clues to solve problems. Escape rooms help reps practice finding a balance between effectiveness and efficiency.

Problem-Solving

Just like escape room teams, sales teams need to be able to communicate and work together to solve problems and achieve goals. In an escape room, team members are forced to collaborate, learn each other’s strengths, and then use them to their advantage. In a Stanford study, researchers found that “People led to feel they were working together freely persisted 48–64% longer on a challenging task” and “reported greater interest in the task.” Escape rooms can improve creativity, teamwork, and decision-making skills, which are all integral steps in the problem-solving process.

Hometown Potluck

Have each employee cook and bring a dish to eat with their colleagues after work. You can encourage everyone to bring something typical from their hometown.

Create a sign-up sheet so team members can organize who brings appetizers, main courses, and desserts. Then, share an event, so everyone remembers to bring their dish to work that day.

Benefits:

Communication

For the team: This activity fosters communication between team members because it gives them time to relax and talk about their interests and cultural differences among their hometowns.

For the job: Sales reps need to be able to keep track of all their clients and scheduled meetings. They can practice organizational skills by keeping track of each other’s responsibilities for the potluck.

Conclusion

If you want your reps to feel satisfied with their jobs, they need to have a friendly and collaborative work environment. Team building activities bring sales teams closer together and help find common ground between team members while improving some key sales skills.

Team building activities can improve both the quality of team interactions, and the quality of sales reps’ work.